FAKE Fic: Lighting The Darkness

Title: Lighting The DarknessAuthor: badly_knittedFandom: FAKECharacters: Dee, Ryo.Rating: PGSetting: After Vol. 7Summary: Dee and Ryo make the best of things during a power cut.Word Count: 798Written For: The tw100 prompt ‘In The Dark’Disclaimer: I don’t own FAKE, or the characters. They belong to the wonderful Sanami Matoh.

“Fuck!” Dee yelped, stubbing his toe on a piece of unseen furniture and hopping about, eyes squeezed shut in pain, until he bumped into the sofa and fell over. Not that having his eyes shut had made any difference; he couldn’t see a damned thing anyway since all the lights went out. Stupid power cut was affecting the whole area; there wasn’t even moon or starlight because of the heavy cloud cover. A storm was imminent.

A snort of amusement came from somewhere across the room. “You know, this wouldn’t be happening if you had more than one flashlight in the apartment.”

“I do have more, I just don’t happen to have batteries for them right now.”

“I stand corrected.”

Dee could hear Ryo’s grin in his voice. “You think this is so funny, why aren’t you helpin’? How come I have to do everything myself?”

“I am helping.” Ryo’s voice came from somewhere else in the room this time. “I’m just going about things a bit more cautiously than you are. Okay, here you go. It’s not much but it should help you find your flashlight.” A small light suddenly came on in the darkness and made its way towards Dee.

“You had a light with you?”

“It’s attached to my car keys, so I can see to unlock the trunk of my car in the dark.”

“Huh, neat. Maybe I should get one of those, could come in handy.”

By the light of Ryo’s miniature torch, they managed to reach Dee’s kitchen without further incident, and Dee rummaged in a drawer for his flashlight and batteries while Ryo got some tea-lights from the stash Dee kept at the back of a cupboard especially for emergencies like this. They set out the small candles by torchlight, and lit them using matches Dee had found in the drawer. Although much of the apartment remained shadowy, at least they could see well enough now to avoid bumping into things.

“Okay, that’s the lighting sorted.” Dee looked around in satisfaction. “Shame we can’t cook over a candle, looks like we’ll have to make do with sandwiches tonight.”

“I think we can do a little better than that,” Ryo said, making his way back to the kitchen. “Why don’t you clear the center of the lounge and spread out a blanket and some cushions while I fix us something to eat?”

Dee looked at his partner, a puzzled expression on his face. “Clear the lounge? What for?”

“You’ll see. Just do it, okay? Trust me.”

“Okay, whatever ya say, babe.”

By the time Dee had done as Ryo asked, his lover had fixed dinner. There was a salad of lettuce, sweet peppers, sliced tomatoes, the contents of a bag of walnut kernels, and a scattering of black olives, crusty, thickly buttered bread rolls, cubes of cheese, and an assortment of fruit, mostly grapes with some leftover strawberries, a sliced apple, and a handful of orange segments.

“Wow!” Dee stared in amazement. “You made all that from what was in my cupboards?”

“All it takes is a little thought and imagination. Come on, get a couple of beers and help me carry everything to the blanket; we’re having an indoor picnic.”

Dee laughed with delight. “Sure beats a night in front of the TV.”

As they set out the food, they heard the first distant rumble of thunder, and outside a heavy rain began to fall, but neither the weather nor the power cut seemed to matter anymore. Sprawled on their picnic blanket, leaning against a pile of pillows in the dim glow of candlelight, they fed each other tasty morsels and talked idly. When they’d eaten their fill, they cleared away the remains of the food and made love late into the night.

As the storm finally passed, the thunder fading away again into the distance, they lay drowsing contentedly in each other’s arms. Everything was peaceful, the dim light from the candles soothing, so when the power came back on without warning, the apartment lights dazzling them and making them hide their eyes, Dee felt a pang of disappointment. As soon as he could see again, he reluctantly disentangled himself from Ryo’s naked body and turned off the overhead lights, but illumination from the city beyond his windows still lit the room more brightly than the candles alone had, chasing away most of the shadows that had made their little pool of light seem so cosy. Ryo pulled his pants on and joined Dee in blowing out the candle flames.

“That was fun, we’ll have to do it again sometime.”

“Yeah,” Dee agreed. “But next time we won’t wait for a power cut to make it dark enough in here to light the candles. That’s what light switches are for.”